If you have noticed bees and wasps acting more aggressively, crashing your backyard cookouts or buzzing around garbage cans across north-central Wisconsin, recent drought conditions are a big reason why.
A wet spring provided ideal nesting conditions for emerging queens coming out of hibernation, allowing colonies to thrive and build robust populations through the early summer.
PJ Liesch is an extension entomologist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has noticed how the drought is affecting these colonies.
“There’s the maximum amount of mouths to feed, so to speak,” he said.